Great Schism was a period from 1378 to 1417 when more than one man claimed to be pope of the Roman Catholic Church. This schism (split) of the papacy (office of pope) and the church occurred after the death of Pope Gregory XI in 1378. The term Great Schism also is sometimes used to describe the division between the Western and Eastern churches in 1054. For information on that division, see Christianity (The medieval church).
Pope Gregory XI died on March 27, 1378. The Roman Catholic cardinals, acting as the Sacred College of Cardinals, then chose a new pope. They elected Bartolomeo Prignano, Archbishop of Bari, Italy, as Pope Urban VI. Urban pursued church reform. He encouraged the cardinals to adopt a simple lifestyle that was less focused on wealth. Many people at that time believed that wealth among the cardinals suggested an unresponsiveness to the needs of common people.
The relationship between Urban and the cardinals quickly deteriorated. The cardinals resented Urban’s increasingly unpleasant and overbearing temperament, and they resisted his reforms. On August 9, at a meeting in Anagni, Italy, most of the cardinals declared Urban’s election as pope void. On September 20, they elected Cardinal Robert of Geneva, Switzerland, as Pope Clement VII to replace Urban. Clement and his electors moved to Avignon, France. Urban remained in Rome and refused to recognize the actions of Clement and his electors.
In the years that followed, rival popes at Rome and Avignon issued excommunications (expulsions from the church) of each other. Political rivalries and intrigues (secret schemes) also surfaced, as European leaders supported one pope or the other. Within dioceses (church districts), bishops loyal to the opposing popes issued their own excommunications and interdicts (prohibitions from certain church privileges).
In an effort to end the schism, some cardinals worked to reform the church so that a general council would supervise and limit the power of the papacy. Their movement was called the conciliar movement or conciliarism.
In 1409, the Council of Pisa met in Pisa, Italy, to try to resolve the schism. The council deposed both popes and elected a different pope to replace them. But the deposed popes did not recognize the council’s actions, and three individuals claimed the papacy.
From 1414 to 1418, the Council of Constance met in Konstanz, Germany. It successfully deposed two popes, John XXIII and Benedict XIII, and accepted the resignation of the third, Gregory XII. In 1417, the council elected Cardinal Oddo Colonna as Pope Martin V, thus ending the schism.
Conciliarism persisted into the 1500’s. Eventually, however, the pope was formally recognized as the highest authority in the church.
See also Roman Catholic Church (The Great Schism) .
